SAC to split up, name 'surveillance' officer

CNBC's Kate Kelly reports that SAC Capital will be revamped on May 1. An SAC memo says the firm has returned almost all investor money.

Having returned the vast majority of its billions of dollars in public money to create a leaner, more private company, the hedge fund SAC Capital will reorganize its disparate trading divisions and rename them by April, according to an internal memo.

In addition, the firm plans to name a new internal overseer, a "chief surveillance officer," to guard against future misdeeds, the memo said.

"During the last several months, we have led a review of how we operate, what we do well and what we can do better," wrote SAC founder Steve Cohen and President Tom Conheeney in an internal email distributed shortly after the close of U.S. markets Tuesday.

"We are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure we never go through again what we have experienced over the last few years," they said.

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The remaining public money SAC managed as of the end of 2013 (a figure that, at its peak, was roughly $16 billion) has largely been returned to outside investors, with the exception of some ancillary investments that are less easily liquidated, according to the memo.

The firm is undergoing a reorganization that includes shrinking the employee base to 850 from more than 1,000 and establishing four streamlined units: long-short equities, a division that once included three separate desks; macro, or globally themed, trading; quantitative trading; and a separate unit devoted to managing Cohen's private investments.

As part of the reorganization, SAC's stock-trading desk will be co-headed by Mike Ferrucci, who previously ran SAC's London office, and Phil Villhauer, who had led the firm's "execution," or trade completion, desk and who recently testified in the insider-trading trial of former SAC portfolio manager Mathew Martoma. (Martoma was convicted on three counts of securities fraud and conspiracy, and awaits sentencing.)

To bolster compliance at SAC's soon-to-be established family office, which will manage only private capital belonging to Cohen, his family members and certain senior employees, the company will establish what the memo refers to as a "chief surveillance officer."

SAC has also hired Doug Haynes, the memo adds, a veteran of McKinsey and General Electric, to "focus on all aspects of human capital development."

SAC's memo did not put a figure on the assets under management it expects to oversee, but people familiar with the firm's operations expect it to be roughly $9 billion.